The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max
by Bohu, i.e. Chaos, the Tohu-wa-Bohu of the Hebrews. The more abstract the potentialities with which these systems begin, the later we may assume their origin to be.
Like the Arabs, the Syrians originally worshipped their gods upon the mountains and in stones; then they erected pillars of wood and stone to them, and images, figures of bulls, or shapes combined from the forms of men and fish. They also erected statues male and female, or androgynous. At the great festivals the sacred tents and chests in which ancient symbols and tokens of the deities were preserved, or the images of the gods, were carried round in solemn procession.[562] Of the festival in the temple of Atargatis, at Hierapolis, we have already spoken (p. 360); of the fire-festival which the Tyrians held in the spring, Lucian tells us: "They trim great trees, set them up in the court of the temple, and bring goats, sheep, birds, and other victims. These they fasten to the trees, and in addition, clothes and gold and silver jewellery. After these preliminaries they carry the images of the gods round the trees; the pyre is then kindled, and all consumed."[563]
As we may conclude from Lucian's account and from ruins, the temples were on a tolerably extensive scale. There were two or three courts, one after the other, either rectangular as at Paphus and Marathus, or oval, as at Malta and Gaulus, surrounded by strong walls, and furnished with pillars, altars, and pools of water. With these was connected a narrow and small shrine, containing the sacred stone or image. The tithes belonged to the gods. Every year, at the festival of Melkarth, in Tyre, an embassy appeared from Carthage which offered to the god of the mother city the tenth of the revenue of their state, and after great victories the Carthaginians probably sent a tenth of the spoil to the gods of Tyre.[564] The number of priests was great; we often find hundreds engaged in a single sacrifice,[565] and the ritual was complicated. The human sacrifices, mutilation, and prostitution, by which the Syrians sought to win the favour of their deities, we have already heard of. At a later time at all the great sanctuaries there were thousands of male and female servants beside the priests. The priests lived on the tithes, the temple lands, and the part which fell to them in the sacrifices. The ritual distinguished burnt offerings, offerings of purification, expiatory offerings, and offerings of the first fruits; besides animals and the firstlings of the field, sacrificial cakes were frequently offered. The bull was the most acceptable victim; cows were not sacrificed, nor the flesh eaten. Beside bulls, rams and he-goats, and of birds, the dove, the partridge, the quail, and the goose were offered. The animals were required to be pure, without blemish, of the male sex, and capable of procreation. To guard against the offering of unclean beasts, the priests of Hierapolis refused to sacrifice any but those bought from themselves.[566] Two Phenician inscriptions of Massilia and Carthage have come down to us from the fourth century B.C., containing the edicts of the Carthaginian Suffetes about the part of the sacrifice belonging to the priests, the fee to be paid for the sacrifice, and finally the price of the victims purchased of the priests. The Carthaginian inscription lays down the rule that of a bull, a ram, or a goat, offered as a burnt-offering, the skin was to be the property of the priests and the inwards the property of the person presenting the victim. Moreover, of every victim offered, the cut and roasted flesh went to the priests. On the other hand, the inscription of Massilia gives the skin to those who present the victim (the law of the Hebrews also gives the skin of a burnt-offering to the man who offers the victim), but according to this decree the victims must be bought from the priests. For a bull ten shekels were to be paid to them, and though the tariff at Carthage lays upon the sacrificer a fee of only 2 sus for each head of fowl sacrificed, the inscription of Massilia raises the fee to ¾ of a shekel and 2 sus.[567]
FOOTNOTES:
[497] In Strabo, p. 756.
[498] Philo. Frag. 1. ed. Müller.
[499] Philon. frag. 1, 6, 7, ed. Müller.
[500] Loc. cit. 2, 1–4, ed. Müller; cf. Bunsen, "Ægypten," 5, 1, 257 ff.
[501] Such is obviously the meaning of this passage.—Baudissin, "Abh. z. semit. Relig." s. 14.
[502] Fragm. 2, 4, 5, ed. Müller.
[503] Pausan. 5, 7, 10.
[504] "Hist. Nat." 36, 65.
[505] Athar-ath, i.e. Astarte-Athe; Brandis, "Münzwesen," s. 431. Diod. 2, 4, 30. 2 Maccab. xi. 26.
[506] Herod. 1, 105. Pausan. 1, 14, 7.
[507] Lucian, "De Dea Syria," c. 16. The cutting off of the hair which Lucian mentions is also a vicarious custom.
[508] Justin. 18, 3.
[509] Movers, "Phœniz." Encycl. v. Ersch. s. 388, ff.
[510] 2 Kings xxiii. 7. Ezek. xxiii. 40, ff.
[511] Movers, "Phœniz." 1, 197, 579; Munter, "Tempel der Göttin von Paphos," and the Syrian coins in De Luynes, "Numismatique," pl. 1. Lucian, "De Dea Syr." 13, 28. On the pillars of Marathus and Paphos, Gerhard, "Kunst der Phœniker," s. 23.
[512] Xenoph. "Anab." 1, 4; Diod. 2, 4; Lucian, loc. cit. 14.
[513] Lucian, loc. cit. 33, 39.
[514] Stark, "Forschungen," s. 248, ff.
[515] Avien. "Ora maritima," v. 305.
[516] De Bell. Parth. 28.
[517] Judges xiv. 23; 1 Samuel, v. ff.
[518] Gesenius, "Monum. Tab." 25. Silius Ital. Pun. 3, 104.
[519] Osborne, "Egypt," p. 144.
[520] Baudissin ("Jahve et Moloch," p.